FijiFirst Headquarters Photo: RNZI / Sally Round
A governance professor in Fiji and a former Electoral Commission member says the resignation of the founding members of the country's largest political party in parliament is a "shocker".
Professor Vijay Naidu speaks to Delphine Herbert
On Monday, FijiFirst party's founding member and a former attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum revealed that all its executives, including former prime minister Frank Bainimarama, had resigned.
Sayed-Khaiyum told local media the decision to step down comes in the aftermath of FijiFirst MPs voting to give themselves a pay rise two weeks ago.
"We now have a situation where we have 17 people who voted for a pay rise when the rest to Fiji is suffering...compromise the principle of FijiFirst. [In the] interest of ensuring that we do not further have this big drama being played out...all these individuals have decided to leave FijiFirst."
The University of the South Pacific lecturer Professor Vijay Naidu said there were no indications that this might happen.
"It's a shocker. It's totally out of the blue," he said.
"It's a shocking turn of events and there doesn't seem to be any sort of great logic behind what they have done."
Professor Naidu said FijiFirst was the largest political party in parliament and "the mind boggles at what the founding members have decided to do".
He said Sayed-Khaiyum's reasons for the party executives to resign did not make sense.
"He's saying that according to the [2013] Constitution, once the letter from the political party is sent to the Speaker, saying that members have not followed political party direction, then the Speaker should put in process within seven days the confirmation that they have vacated their seat, but the he Speaker hasn't done that."
However, he said the Registrar of Political Parties, Ana Mataiciwa, has decided that the constitution of the FijiFirst party should be changed before 28 June or the party risks being deregistered because they do have a dispute resolution resolution process within the current constitution.
Mataiciwa said she does not have any intervening powers with regards to filling of positions or overall management of any party under the Political Parties Act and can only take action if the party breaches the law.
"But beyond that, they [are] alleging some kind of collusion between the speaker and the Registrar of Political Parties," Professor Naidu said, adding "and then they say that the Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption has been mobilidsed to search the house of the acting secretary of the FijiFiji party, and they went and searched his house."
"So, individually in combination, the reasons being given are not good enough for all these people to resign en mass...and thereby leaving the party in absolute crisis."
Professor Naidu said while supporters may sympathise with Sayed-Khaiyum and FijiFirst, "a lot of people would be taken aback and also would be left with a sense of being let down".
He said without a strong opposition it undermines the coalition government because both the minority parties in the coalition are weakened in terms of the leverage within the government.